Top 5 Exchanges to Buy and Sell Bitcoins

While Mt. Gox collapsed recently, losing a whopping 750,000 Bitcoins and filing for bankruptcy, the Bitcoin system seems to have weathered the storm surprisingly well. The price of Bitcoins recovered in the wake of the Mt. Gox catastrophe, hitting an amazing $701.32 per coin. Reports about Bitcoin’s death are nothing but exaggerations, after all. Mt. Gox may have been the largest Bitcoin exchange right before it went down, but that doesn’t mean that it was the only big fish in town.

The nature of the Bitcoin marketplace means that there are a lot of other exchanges out there where you can trade Bitcoins with national currencies, as well as other cryptocurrencies. Some of these exchanges claim to do things in a different way compared to first-generation services like Mt. Gox, and some, like Coinbase, have even received funding from venture capitalists.

We can’t be 100% sure that there won’t be a repeat of the Mt. Gox fiasco, so tread wisely. But, if you want to start buying and selling Bitcoins, here’s 5 of the best exchanges you should take a look at.

Based in Slovenia, Bitstamp is previously the second largest exchange behind Mt. Gox. It doesn’t offer a lot of advanced buying and selling order forms, but it has an instant buy/sell order that buys and sells your coins at the lowest and highest offered price respectively, as well as a limit order that limits maximum purchase and minimum selling prices. Bitstamp only supports USD, and charges a nominal fee per transaction, with the size of the fee changing based on a 30-day trading history. You will also be charged for withdrawals, ranging from €0.90 if you’re part of the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA), to a $15 minimum fee for those outside of the SEPA.

Kraken is a feature-rich cryptocurrency trading platform that combines Forex trading and Bitcoin exchanges into a single, comprehensive service. It has advanced order forms like Stop-Loss, Trailing Stop, and Take Profit, which means that you can trade exactly how you want. To match these trading features, Kraken has a big-picture security, including full reserves, extensive legal counsel, and strong relationships with various banks. Kraken supports USD and EUR, but trading with national currencies requires Level 2 verifications. There are four tiers of verification in this site. The amount Kraken charges for deposits and withdrawals depends on the currency. Transactions times differ, as well. Also, Kraken supports Litecoin, Namecoin, and Ripple.

Justcoin

This Norway-based Bitcoin exchange platform claims to be an easy-to-use exchange, and so doesn’t have any advanced trading or exchange features. In terms of security, Justcoin stores its Bitcoins in encrypted offline wallets, which are then stored in secure bank vaults. They also provide two-factor authentication. Justcoin supports USD, EUR, and Norwegian Kroner, and charges a 0.5% trading fee for all transactions. It also supports Litecoin and Ripple. However, you can’t buy these currencies directly. Instead, you’ll have to purchase Bitcoins first, then exchange for either of the two currencies.

Second only to Bitstamp in terms of transaction volume, Bitfinex is definitely one of the most advanced Bitcoin exchanges currently in operation. You can go short or long, exchange and even trade Bitcoins with leverage, if you want. All of the Bitcoins are stored in a cold wallet and the database is backed up once every day. Additionally, Bitfinex works with security company Arcui to detect and prevent intrusions. Bitfinex only supports USD. It has a relatively complex fee structure, with varying fees depending on the amount of Bitcoin you’ve traded over a 30-day period. These fees start at 0.15% and can go as low as 0.1%. Withdrawals in Bitcoin and Litecoin are both free, but you will be charged with a $10 fee for international wire withdrawals.

This is one of the larger Bitcoin exchanges available online, behind Bitstamp and Bitfinex. This trading platform is shrouded in anonymity, with no clues as to the identities of those behind it and where the exchange is truly based. What we know for sure is that it is built on the MetaTrader 4 platform and intends to start publishing audited financial statements sometime soon. BTC-e supports USD, EUR, and Russian Rubles. They charge a 0.2% fee for every transactions conducted on the site, although they don’t mention that this fee may be different for each account. Apart from Bitcoin, BTC-e also trades in Litecoin, Namecoin, Peercoin, and Primecoin.